Vin Diesel Talks Marvel Meetings, Playing Groot in 'Guardians of the Galaxy'

The action star has been dropping tidbits about working with Marvel on an upcoming film for weeks. He posted tantalizing photos to his Facebook page and assured fans at Comic-Con that some major news was forthcoming. And it's all but official that he'll voice the giant tree-man Groot in "Guardians of the Galaxy."

But in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Diesel reveals that those initial Marvel meetings were not about Groot at all. In fact, the two parties were discussing a film to launch Marvel's Phase 3 movie development.

"We were initially talking about a fresh [intellectual property]," he said. "That was the focus of our conversation, a fresh IP that would come out in 2016 and 2017 and would potentially launch a third phase."

But at Comic-Con, Diesel realized that fans were clamoring for him to be in a Marvel movie right now.

"With my schedule, it was almost impossible to imagine I could do anything immediate," he said. After the release of "Riddick" on September 6, Diesel is booked solid, with "Fast and Furious 7" and other projects already lined up. So he and Marvel executives started talking about the role of Groot in "Guardians of the Galaxy."

"I guess after they watched Iron Giant, or whatever, they came up with this idea of taking the strangest Marvel character -- or the strangest Marvel character that's ever hit film -- and thought what I could do with that with motion capture and with my voice," he said.

When Wolverine shields Yashida from the blast, he suffers serious burns, including the loss of all of his hair. Somehow, though, his pants are never affected by the explosion. Where can we buy those pants?